It’s not just the business goals that need to be taken into account tho. It’s also the learner.

Learners develop new skills much differently than they did 20 years ago Three words to describe them: distracted, overwhelmed, and impatient Ya’ll probably know this, but designers now have between 5 and 10 seconds to grab learner’s attention. We learned in a seminar this week that people’s attention span is about 8 seconds. The final stat I want to throw at you is that, in a typical work week, you have about 1% of an employee’s time to focus on training and development (in the traditional sense).

Because of this, some definite preferences have emerged for the modern learner. Untethered. Workers work from everywhere – plants, planes, cars, airports. Workers want to be able to learn from these places as well. On-demand. Learners have a preference for learning in-the-moment, when they need the info. Google gets accessed much more than online courses. People are increasingly turning to smartphones to get answers to questions. Collaborative. Developing and accessing networks is becoming more important. Sometimes more important than the knowledge itself when it comes to doing a job. Empowered. The half life of a workplace skill is now between 2.5 to 5 years. Workers often find their own training when they can’t find it within the company. In fact, 62% of IT professionals say that they have spent their own money on outside courses to learn skills for their job.

SO businesses are changing and accelerating, and learners have different preferences than they have in the past, and that puts L&D in a weird spot. How are we doing?

The findings 92 percent of companies believe that redesigning the organization is important, making it No. 1 in ranked importance among this year’s respondents. Companies are decentralizing authority, moving toward product- and customer-centric organizations, and forming dynamic networks of highly empowered teams that communicate and coordinate activities in unique and powerful ways. Three in four respondents report that they are either currently restructuring their organization or have recently completed the process.

Why is this? A new mode of organization—a “network of teams” with a high degree of empowerment, strong communication, and rapid information flow—is now sweeping business and governments around the world. The growth of the Millennial demographic, the diversity of global teams, and the need to innovate and work more closely with customers are driving a new organizational flexibility among high-performing companies. They are operating as a network of teams alongside traditional structures, with people moving from team to team rather than remaining in static formal configurations. Two major factors are driving change. Small teams can deliver results faster, engage people better, and stay closer to their mission. Second, the digital revolution helps teams stay aligned. Today, teams use web or mobile apps to share goals, keep up to date on customer interactions, communicate product quality or brand issues, and build a common culture.

What’s needed? The days of the top-down hierarchical organization are slowly coming to an end, but changing the organization chart is only a small part of the transition to the network of teams. Now, more than ever, is the time to challenge traditional organizational structures, empower teams, hold people accountable, and focus on building a culture of shared information, shared vision, and shared direction.

First, they’re using work for learning. They’re looking for opportunities where work already provides developmental experiences. In our last study we asked about 40 different technologies and methods for learning to see which were impactful And it turns out that the only group that showed a positive, significant relationship with business and learner experience outcomes were these 10 as a group They are those that provide individuals with experiences.

So organizations that are using these types of methods tend to be doing better. In fact, the chart shows that high performing organizations – those shown here in blue and green, are using these methods much more than their lower performing counterparts.

A couple of interesting points about the model itself. First, 74% of organizations fall in the bottom two levels Usually there is a difference between high and low maturity, meaning that there is a break between levels two and three; In the case o this model, the biggest jump was between levels 3 and 4. Level 4 companies scored higher in almost everything. And they’re usually outperforming other organizations by a pretty wide margin.